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Stingray HH SLO 'problems' : need some advice

sifi76

sifi76

Mar 14, 2007
447
174
New Zealand
#1
Hey all, I just recently aquired a Stingray HH Slo special but I'm having a few issues with it that I hoped fellow ray owners might help me fix or understand.

Firstly, no matter what I do with the five way coil switch, I get this overly twangy sound, similar to the strings hitting the pickups.. in this case though there is enough room between the pup's and strings to park a bus! It also has this 'twangy' treble no matter how many adjustments I do to the genz amp, even with the mids dialled off and treble dialled down I still get this super bright sound. I am using DR dragonskin strings so I'm not sure if that is a factor, but I did notice the same thing at a live gig where I was playing regular slinky's.. am I doing something wrong here or is this the 'stingray sound' that most people say can't be dialled out of the tone.

also maybe a ray owner who owns a genz 9.0 can give me a few eq pointers, usually I have everything set flat, with a bit of bass boost.. but I am def having issues on this with the ray

Ok any help here would be great (and save me having to sell this bass)
 
#2
Hi,

Stingrays always have a 'twangy' element to their sound and depending on what basses you have been used to may make this more noticable to your ears now....

Without a sound byte it's impossible to tell if your bass is any less or more 'twangy' than it should be, so I would recommend a visit to a local music shop to do a comparison with one of their Stingrays first.
 
#3
HalfManHalfBass said:
Hi,

Stingrays always have a 'twangy' element to their sound and depending on what basses you have been used to may make this more noticable to your ears now....

Without a sound byte it's impossible to tell if your bass is any less or more 'twangy' than it should be, so I would recommend a visit to a local music shop to do a comparison with one of their Stingrays first.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have played a few stingrays instore, including a classic ray and haven't noticed it as much as I have with the SLO.. I have a sinking suspicion the fault lies with my genz shuttle settings and not the bass itself.. the only time this 'treble' is not evident is when I switch to the frontmost coil, turns all the mid off, and the treble down.. and from all the demo's I have heard/watched on youtube I haven't noticed anything similar to what I'm experiencing
 
#5
nubs said:
i have an EBMM SLO special and the one thing that it is not, is "twangy" not in any setting of the 5 way PUP switch, not twangy to my ears in the least bit......
Click to expand...

Yeah, see this is why I'm a bit stumped.. there's something I know I'm not doing right.. I think I'm gonna take the DR's off and get some ernie hybrids or super slinky's and see if that makes a difference.

In terms of basses I have had in the past, I've owned fender j's, spector's, warwick streamers, lakland 44-94 and 44-07.. all of which have had varied sound differences.. but this stingray HH is a whole different deal tone wise.. and I'm pretty sufre it shouldn't be 'that' different.. eh, I'll figure it out
 
#6
You might want to take this question over to the people on the EBMM bass forum. You're sure to find someone with the same gear over there, and they're a pretty helpful bunch.
 
#7
sifi76,

Please don't take offense, but I want to make sure you are aware of the control layout, because EBMMs are backwards to a lot of other basses.

The layout from front to rear is: Vol, Treble, Mid, Bass (Treble and Bass are reversed from other instruments I've played).

I speak from personal experience when I say that I was unhappy with my tone until I made this discovery. You need to look at the Ernie Ball .pdf files from the website to actually see the layout.

If this isn't the issue, you may want to try some Ernie Ball Type III flats. They sound really good on Rays.

Best of luck, and I hope you really enjoy the bass!

Bob
 
#8
Bobster said:
sifi76,

Please don't take offense, but I want to make sure you are aware of the control layout, because EBMMs are backwards to a lot of other basses.

The layout from front to rear is: Vol, Treble, Mid, Bass (Treble and Bass are reversed from other instruments I've played).

I speak from personal experience when I say that I was unhappy with my tone until I made this discovery. You need to look at the Ernie Ball .pdf files from the website to actually see the layout.

If this isn't the issue, you may want to try some Ernie Ball Type III flats. They sound really good on Rays.

Best of luck, and I hope you really enjoy the bass!

Bob
Click to expand...

Not to be offensive, but I find it impossible to believe that anyone can not tell the difference between the treble, mid and bass controls on a Ray...
 
#9
I recommend setting the bass and the amp to flat first then start tweaking either the bass or the amp controls to get the sound you want.
I have a couple of EB basses (SR5, Stingray, and Sterling) and each one requires a different setting. I try to keep the amp setting which get me close to the sound I want then use the bass controls to dial in the sound.
The Sterling seems to have the brightest sound, whereas the SR5 has more low mids. The 4 string 'Ray sounds closer to the SR5 but the reason is that the 'Ray has flats on it.
 
#10
mdogs said:
Not to be offensive, but I find it impossible to believe that anyone can not tell the difference between the treble, mid and bass controls on a Ray...
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for your helpful input!

I didn't say how long it takes to figure it out. And, many folks start twirling knobs when playing a new (to them) instrument.

scifi76 is a new Ray owner and just because something is obvious to one person, doesn't mean it is to everyone.

Have a great day.

Bob
 
#15
fenderhutz said:
3 band it's a twangy, middy, bass mess.
Click to expand...

I was with you until you got to that point! Where did you get this idea from? Regrettably, this is complete nonsense.

The 3 band EQ gives far more control of upper mids (you can add them or subtract them - just like many Fender players do by setting their amps with a smiley face, mid cut EQ, to take out the upper mids).

The 3 band Stingray has a very similar sound to a 2 band, just more flexibility (I doubt anyone could ever tell audibly, the difference between a 2 band and a 3 band on a recording). The 2 band appears to be able to boost bass a little more, and perhaps treble also.
 
#17
drTSTingray said:
I was with you until you got to that point! Where did you get this idea from? Regrettably, this is complete nonsense.

The 3 band EQ gives far more control of upper mids (you can add them or subtract them - just like many Fender players do by setting their amps with a smiley face, mid cut EQ, to take out the upper mids).

The 3 band Stingray has a very similar sound to a 2 band, just more flexibility (I doubt anyone could ever tell audibly, the difference between a 2 band and a 3 band on a recording). The 2 band appears to be able to boost bass a little more, and perhaps treble also.
Click to expand...


I agree with this. I think far too much is made about the difference between the two band and three band Rays. The three band has a little something different going on in the high end, but I doubt anyone would notice in a mix.
 
#18
king_biscuit said:
I agree with this. I think far too much is made about the difference between the two band and three band Rays. The three band has a little something different going on in the high end, but I doubt anyone would notice in a mix.
Click to expand...

Yeah It's not so much the difference between 2 and 3 eq, but more the difference between hat I have played in the past.. I haven't had to be so strict on my amp's mid and treble settings prior to this.. mind you I have been playing warwick streamers, spectors, and passive and deluxe mia jazz basses and an atk 300 (the old beat up workhorse hehe) and I haven't noticed as much high end response before as I have from this ray HH.

And yes just to clarify, I am aware how to tell the difference between bass mid and treble in terms of tone and layout.. I'm not at all a newbie to the bass world... maybe just to the ernie ball one :p

perhaps this is just something I have to get used to :hmm:
 
#19
The 2 vs 3 band is a bit of a myth. In the 90s when I bought my first Ray with my first proper job (98/99 ish) no one had the two band, and every player I spoke to said get the 3 band for extra mid control.

I did. I've also played 2 bands a lot. They both sound exactly like a Ray should. The 2 band popularity seems to be on forums over the past 5 years or so. They are both great, but the two band bass boost is quite straining on your cabs apparently (it's quite sub bass).

EB Group 3 flats, use them for 2-3 months, drop the treble. Done.

I've done this and I've started missing the snarl but luckily I have three Rays.
 
#20
I had the same thing, combined with very low output. Turned out the battery cable was broken.

You can check if you have the same problem by removing the battery and check if the sound changes.

It might also be that the pickups are set too low, you can check the recommended height with the EBMM website. If the bass came straight from the factory, this is very unlikely, though.

Edit: this was on the standard 3-band one pickup Stingray.
 

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